


of all my ghosts

by lazyfish



Series: promptober [16]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 10:43:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21178109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazyfish/pseuds/lazyfish
Summary: Sometimes the only way to survive is by telling ghost stories.





	of all my ghosts

Jemma’s daughter has blue eyes and a love of stories.

She asks questions about the stories, more questions than Jemma knows how to answer - questions like  _ why a mockingbird _ and  _ how does a hunter become a good person? _

Her daughter asks questions, and Fitz doesn’t know. He doesn’t know about the stories, either, of a mockingbird and her hunter, swooping in to save the day. Jemma wants to protect him from the pain, protect him from the sorrow of her heart being dug up so many times she’ll never be able to bury it again. Fitz isn’t the only one Jemma wants to protect - she doesn’t want to burden her daughter with a grief that isn’t hers to carry.

Jemma knows a heart is heavy; it’s why she searched so hard and so long for someone else to help her hold hers.

But there are somethings Jemma knows. Things like: a little girl shouldn’t know loss before she knows there are people who will always stay, and a little girl shouldn’t know darkness before she can be assured that light will always win.

A little girl shouldn’t fall in love with ghosts before she falls in love with the living.

So Jemma whispers ghost stories at her daughter’s bedside, stories of blonde hair and hazel eyes and so much love she almost drowns. She whispers stories of cold winter nights in a faraway land, but they end differently. They end with four people huddled around a warm fire, they end with love, they end with light.

They have to end happily. There has to be a happily ever after, because Jemma can’t let something as precious as innocence die in her hands.

There are so many things Jemma wants to teach her little girl. Most of all, she wants her daughter to know love doesn’t end.

It goes on, and on, and on - even if the only way it can live forever is in ghost stories.


End file.
